James Lowe Leo Cullen Leinster Rugby Ireland New Zealand Dublin Sport Rugby cup James Lowe Leo Cullen Leinster Rugby Ireland New Zealand Dublin

'Not my cup of tea' - James Lowe prepared for Leicester Tigers tactics

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For a man with a rocket for a left boot James Lowe says attritional kicking games are not his cup of team.Part of Ireland's Grand Slam-winning side, Lowe is used to an all-court game and coming from a Super Rugby background in New Zealand, is well used to playing fast and open with ball in hand.But Leinster’s most recent game, last Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup last-16 win over Ulster, was played in horrendous conditions meaning the four-time winners needed to adjust their style.That they were able to do that, and come through to win by three scores pleased the 30-year-old Kiwi, no end.Double Heineken Cup winners Leicester are next up for Leo Cullen’s side and visit Dublin on Friday evening (Aviva Stadium, 8pm, live on RTÉ2, RTÉ Player and RTÉ Radio 1).They are the reigning Premiership champions and rely heavily, but not only, on a strong kicking game.

In their win over Edinburgh they kicked 41 times for 1,153 metres gained, the most of any team in the Round of 16."You can argue that they don’t play too much rugby in the middle half of the field and it’s probably true," said Lowe, whose six successful kicks in open play yielded an average return of 60 metres."Their style of rugby...they are finding a way to win without taking too many risks."We need to understand what they are trying to do to us and hopefully turn it on its head."We’ve got a pretty good idea of what they are going to do and I don’t think they are going to stray too far from their good maul, their good maul [defence] and the kickers that they’ve got across the park."I’m not going to lie, it’s not my cup of tea but when it comes to these matches it a game of percentages and our forwards really showed up against Ulster."We had a rough idea that they

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